Necromancer Items

Shields are incredibly useful items in Diablo II. They work to block all physical and many types of elemental attacks, completely negating those attacks when successfully blocked. Shields are also an excellent source of resistance, when socketed with gems or various runes.

Class-specific items are much like other items. They have a variety of stats and types, can be found magical, Rare, Unique, and sometimes in Sets as well. The real difference is that these items can only be used by one character class, and they can have random bonuses to individual skills, much like the ones you see on wands/staves/scepters in Diablo II. This is in contrast with magic items possessing class-specific Skill Level and Necromancer Skill Tree prefixes, which may be used by classes other than the Necromancer without benefiting from the skill modifiers, and Wands, which can possess inherent bonuses of +1-3 skill points to up to three Necromancer skills from any of his skill trees.

Necromancers get Totems for their class-specific items in the Expansion. Totems were originally known as "Shrunken Heads" and you can easily see why with a glance at their graphics. These items are equipped in the shield spot, and offer low blocking, but can have inherent bonuses to individual Necromancer skills, and magical bonuses to his skill trees or even all skills. All Totems have an inherent poison damage that increases with the item quality.

Contents

Blocking % in Classic: Characters block at the % listed on the shield (when equipped) + any other bonuses. Total blocking is capped at 75%. A character can get more than this with a good shield + Twitchthroe, or a Paladin can use his Holy Shield skill, but no matter how high the display is, 75% is all that can be blocked. This is while standing still, running, walking, fighting, casting spells, etc.

Blocking % in the Expansion: The way blocking works is changed in the expansion. The new formula for blocking is:

This formula basically means that if you have less than half of your stat points into Dexterity, you will have a lower block rating than your shield displays, but if more than half of your stat points are in Dex, then you will have a higher blocking %. Blocking is capped at 5% minimum and 75% maximum and displays if you hover on your Defense in the Character window. Sorcs and Necros who do not devote considerable resources to raising their dexterity will find their blocking at a very low level above Clvl 50, so should pick shields based on their magical bonuses, not for the blocking percent.

Blocking is reduced to 33% of this value when running, but uses regular values when walking, standing still, or melee attacking.

Listed Blocking: All shields vary in blocking percent by character. The Paladin's is always 5% higher than an Amazon/Assassin/Barbarian, and 10% higher than a Druid/Sorceress/Necromancer.

Weight: All shields are light, medium, or heavy. Light shields have no negative effects, medium have a -5% speed and -5% stamina regen rate, and heavy have -10% speed and -10% stamina regen.

Speed: A penalty governed by weight; 0 is no penalty, 5 is slightly slower running and stamina regen (but rounds to 0 anyway) and 10 is a bigger running speed and stamina regen penalty. % Faster Block Rate can lower this number to below zero.

Exceptional Totems can be found in Acts 4 and 5, and then all through Nightmare and Hell difficulty. Check the Item levels and compare to the Monster Levels to see exactly which monsters can drop which types of helms.